test-drb August 2016

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

175 participants
281 discussions

Is there an authoritative copy of the PDP 11 Field Guide?

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Ethan Dicks > Any updates on this? I have a much-annotated copy of the list, and had reached out to Megan about sending it to her, but I fell into a hole, and never got to it. Maybe I should check out all my changes, and get moving on that. One question: I was using the list to sort through all the stuff that showed up on eBait, so I wound up adding a bunch of VAX M-series boards, on the basis that if the listing didn't include a photo (so that one could see that it was a so-called 'super hex' board (i.e. deeper than usual), it was impossible to tell them from PDP-11 M-series boards. (And IIRC the /730 boards are the same length as PDP-11 boards?) Was that a good call, or should I have left them out? (I left out all PDP-8 boards, since they are already in another list.) Noel

7 years, 11 months

Differences between the PDP-11/15 and PDP-11/20

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> From: Paul Popelka > Thanks for posting that the KT-11B documentation is available. Sure. Was the Computer History Wiki thing of any use? > Does anyone know if schematics for it were included in the auction? > ... > If the schematics are available, are there plans to get onto bitsavers? The answers apparently are yes, and yes - although there are two parts to the prints (the KT11-B itself, and the KA11 changes), and it seems that unfortunately there's (at least) one page missing from the 'KA11 changes' part. Noel

7 years, 11 months

Is there an authoritative copy of the PDP 11 Field Guide?

by trenchdweller＠att.net

blockquote, div.yahoo_quoted { margin-left: 0 !important; border-left:1px #715FFA solid !important; padding-left:1ex !important; background-color:white !important; } I've been using Megan Gentry's copy at http://world.std.com/~mbg/ but that seems to have disappeared recently.There seem to be several other copies available with different update dates. Which copy of this do other people use?Thanks,Paul

7 years, 11 months

FTGH: miscellaneous old stuff

by mouse＠Rodents-Montreal.ORG

I've got a bunch of old stuff I want to get rid of. Much of it is squarely on-topic here; most of the rest is tangentially on-topic, and I hope the remainder can be forgiven. All this stuff is in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and is yours if you come pick it up. In theory, I could ship, but I suck at actually getting stuff shipped. Except as noted, these are functionality unknown. I don't _think_ any of these have been robbed for parts, but it's possible (least unlikely for the vacuum-tube devices). Details may be incorrect; at least two human-layer copies were involved in everything here and I'm tired, so miscopying is not at all out of the question. In no particular order: Two TK50 tape drives. These are just the drives, no controller cards or enclosures. One mechanical (not even electromech) typewriter. Aside from generic interest in such things, the major reason people here might care about it is that it has the C= logo prominently visible on it. (Not just a sticker; if this is an aftermarket addon, it is a very well-done one.) One arc-welding helmet. It is made of fibreglass and is somewhat cracked, but still entirely functional. Four SparQ 1.0 tapes. Contents unknown. A power supply. It is marked as a Sun 300-1047-05; it is Zytec-branded, marked as a ZYRISE 925W unit, Zytec part number 22903110. It is marked as being limited to 150A on +5V, 15A each on -5.2V and +12V, and 10A on -12V; the +12V is also marked "25A PK FOR 20 SEC". But it is marked as max total power 925W, and needing 60CFM forced air cooling. The connector is nothing I recognize; it's the kind of custom thing I'd expect for a PS that can push 150A.... One HP 211A, a SQUARE WAVE GENERATOR, serial #2707. This is test gear >from the vacuum tube era. Two HP 202A LOW FREQUENCY FUNCTION GENERATORs. Based on the controls, these are capable of sine, triangle, and square waves from, IIRC, about .01Hz to something like 1200Hz. These also date from the vacuum tube era. An "ALLEN B DUMONT LABORATORIES" oscilliscope, model 304 H, serial 5484. An HP 400D vacuum-tube voltmeter. A Beckman/Berkeley model 5230 "UNIVERSAL EPUT? AND TIMER", whatever that is. The most visually notable feature is that it has four display columns with ten digit positions in each one, presumably with a lamp behind each position. Various magnetic media. Figuring most prominently are QIC tapes, TK50s, and 5?" floppies. Some of the "TK50"s might actually be some other tape in the same form factor, but if I had to guess I would guess not. Most/all of the tapes are in plastic cases; the floppies have paper jackets and/or cardboard boxes around them. Contents unknown, though at least some have labels. For the labeled media, I hope to get the labels transcribed sometime over the next week or so. If/when I do that I'll post the results. /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

7 years, 11 months

Differences between the PDP-11/15 and PDP-11/20

by paulp1＠gmail.com

Thanks for posting that the KT-11B documentation is available. Does anyone know if schematics for it were included in the auction? The flip chip board complement for it is in the posted document but nothing else. If the schematics are available, are there plans to get onto bitsavers? Paul Sent from my iPad

7 years, 11 months

X server for original PC (8088/8086)

by cmhanson＠eschatologist.net

Back in the day, did anyone produce an X11 server for DOS-based 8086/8088 systems, say with support for Hercules or CGA graphics? Or was that strictly a 286-or-better thing, given the overall constraints of the 8086 architecture? (There were plenty of mouse-and-window systems for the PC/XT back then, I expect black & white X11 over a serial link would not be *that* bad?) -- Chris

7 years, 11 months

Differences between the PDP-11/15 and PDP-11/20

by jnc＠mercury.lcs.mit.edu

> I'm not sure how the KT11-B works, but my _suspicion_ ... is that it's > not part of the CPU, but a UNIBUS device So, I wuz wrong. The Option Description (part User Manual, with a little bit of Technical Manual thrown in) is now online: http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/dec/pdp11/1120/KT11-B_OD_Apr71.pdf Having looked through it, the KT11-B is a far more impressive beast than I thought: there are -11/20 KA11 CPU processor mods to provide User and Exec mode (i.e. real hardware time-sharing) - there is in fact another cable between the CPU and KT11-B, it did not show up in the pictures, I guess - and the memory mapping is paging, with page tables kept in core. (Just like a junior KI10...) Using the OD, I have prepared a page in the Computer History for it: http://gunkies.org/wiki/KT11-B_Paging_Option which gives (I modestly claim :-) a clear and concise overview of how the whole thing works. (The details are all there in the DEC document, but scattered throughout, in dribs and drabs.) The DEC thing will be a much easier-to-grok read if you've read this first, I reckon. The OD does contains some minor details that aren't in the Wiki page (e.g. you apparently can't modify the CPU's priority in User mode), so if you're really interested in the thing, read the OD too. A couple of observations: First, it does not contain anything like SSR1 in the standard PDP-11 memory management, which records which registers have changed, and by how much, on an instruction which gets a fault. It does record a couple of internal KA11 major state bits: http://gunkies.org/wiki/KA11_CPU which do allow one, after examinging the instruction which faulted (the address of which is provided in a KT11-B register), to work that out (unlike the -11/40, in which some instructions cannot be restarted because the CPU just doesn't keep enough data around). Still, the code to handle faults is going to involve parsing the instruction (like m40.s in V6 UNIX, if anyone cares), to make use of those recorded CPU state bits. Second, for some reason a TRAP instruction in user mode traps to user mode, not kernel! This would be a massive PITA for Unix, which uses the TRAP instruction, for details I won't bore you all with (unless someone cares). Noel

7 years, 11 months

Microvax II hardware not recognized

by dj.taylor4＠comcast.net

I've brought up a MicroVax II and installed VMS 5.5-2 on a SCSI2SD disk and it is fun to work with. (I also installed openvms 7.2 without much drama) The problem I am having is that is has a TK50 tape drive and controller, but it never has shown up in the device list. I even swapped in a different controller. The DHV11 did show up initially but has now disappeared from the device list. Did I do this by removing boards and putting them back in? A RQDX2 board was put back in at a secondary CSR address and that shows up (it is connected to an RX50 which shows up in the device list). Does Autogen recognize new hardware? Doug

7 years, 11 months

6800 CDAT memory diag help

by vintagecomputer＠bettercomputing.net

Thanks Michael!?I did read through those but I'm still getting used to operating the 6800 and am still a bit confused. ?If I want to confine the program to a certain address range, say $0000 to $1111, is the most significant byte of $0000, 0? ?As well as least? ?And then 1 and 1 for the higher address? ?And I'm assuming I set that using the M (addr) command? Thanks!!! Sent from my Samsung device -------- Original message -------- From: Michael Holley <swtpc6800 at comcast.net> Date: 2016-08-20 9:12 PM (GMT-08:00) To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: RE: 6800 CDAT memory diag help Here is the instructions for memory tests, CDAT is on page 3. http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/swtbug/MemoryDiagnostic.pdf The CDAT memory diagnostic can be used to help locate memory problems in a SWTPC 6800 computer system that MEMCON and ROBIT may miss. The program itself resides entirely within the 128 byte SWTBUG? RAM. The program must be loaded in two parts to avoid interfering with the systems push down stack. The contiguous section of memory to be tested is set by loading the most significant byte of the lower memory address into A002, the least significant byte into A003, the most significant byte of the upper memory address in A004 and its least significant byte in A005. The low address must be less than or equal to the upper address. The test starts from the low address and writes a 00 into all memory up to the high address. An FF is then written into the first address and all other locations are checked to be sure they contain 00. If all are OK the FF is replaced with a 00 and an FF is written in the next memory location. This pattern continues until all memory is checked or an error is found. If the computer returns to SWTBUG?, then no errors were found. ?????? NAM??? CDAT-2? ???? *MEM DIAGNOSTIC (JOHN CHRISTENSEN'S) ?????? *MODIFIED FOR MIKBUG AND SWTBUG OPERATION E0E3?????????? CONTRL? EQU??? $E0E3 A002???????????????????????????? ORG??? $A002? A002?????????? LOTEMP? RMB??? 2???????? STARTING ADDRESS? A004?????????? HITEMP? RMB??? 2???????? ENDING ADDRESS Michael Holley -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Brad H Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2016 12:49 PM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: 6800 CDAT memory diag help ??? Hi there, I'm still having some glitches with my 6800 system and would like to do a proper RAM diag.? From reading, it seems like CDAT is the most exhaustive.. but I cannot get it to run.? I can load and then run it.. but it immediately fails at address 8000.? Since I understand this is used for I/O I am wondering how I would adjust CDAT so it ignores that space and does everything else?? Any suggestions would be most appreciated.? I think you can alter the addresses with most and least significant bytes but don't understand quite how. Brad Sent from my Samsung device

7 years, 11 months

6800 CDAT memory diag help

by vintagecomputer＠bettercomputing.net

Hi there, I'm still having some glitches with my 6800 system and would like to do a proper RAM diag. ?From reading, it seems like CDAT is the most exhaustive.. but I cannot get it to run. ?I can load and then run it.. but it immediately fails at address 8000. ?Since I understand this is used for I/O I am wondering how I would adjust CDAT so it ignores that space and does everything else? ?Any suggestions would be most appreciated. ?I think you can alter the addresses with most and least significant bytes but don't understand quite how. Brad Sent from my Samsung device

7 years, 11 months

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test-drb August 2016